SEKI loop from REoads End and Rough Fire in Hume Lake area

The most up to date info can be found here: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4456/

We just bailed on a hike out of Mammoth Lakes because of the smoke from the Rough fire in Sequoia. These two spots are very far apart but this fire is pumping out a lot of smoke. Check out the website of the Great Basin Air Pollution Control District. There is an animation of where the smoke is and where they forecast it will be in next 24 hours. The Rough fire is in such rugged terrain that they need a break in the weather (rain) to do much beyond protecting structures. This could take a long time. A Forest Service guy told us they were pulling backcountry Rangers out because the air was so bad. Strangely, Mammoth and Bishop were worse than Lone Pine.

Thank you for your information. From this distance in MA it is hard to decipher what it is like—only that the images of the fire and the reporting are awful. Very distressing. I am thinking I need to re-schedule eventhough my travel is not until Sept 12.

I would say bail now and plan something else. I still have a car there and cant get it out. The fire keeps getting bigger and the smoke is everywhere. I should have bailed as soon as I got there. The fire was less than a few thousand acres when I started it's now over 50k.

Think it's safe to say that if smoke is not what you want, anywhere on the west coast is a no go…. I expect there will also be a huge number of backpackers and campers flooding parts of the Sierra where the smoke is less oppressive. It was really, really hard to find a trailhead with any available reservable space left. I had to move my own Roads End plans elsewhere. I'm okay with haze, but from pictures of the low visibility and walls of dense smoke, anywhere in the region of the fire is going to be impossible until the fire is out, which probably won't happen until it starts raining (real rain, not afternoon storms).

hey all this is interesting – i haven't heard others state so assuredly that the smoke will definitely be a problem two weeks from now. i have a trip planned along the high sierra trail from sept 11-19. i'm an east coaster and new to wildfire and we've been taking a wait and see attitude towards rethinking our plans. i'm curious if those of you with more experience think it smarter to move on now. the fire does seem to be growing in acreage, but 'containment' numbers have gone from 3% to 17% to now 21% this AM (http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4456/). i'm not sure what any of that means from a (hiking) boots on the ground perspective, though. i've seen a couple reports from people who were just on the HST – one saying the smoke was annoying for a day but otherwise a minor inconvenience for a couple hours a day, and another who turned around on day two because it was so bad. anyway, thoughts from experienced west coasters would be greatly appreciated. our alt plan is probably a canyon trip to utah, which is not a very sad outcome! but we have our heart set on the sierra.

Wildfires are …. unpredictable. Of course a 3" rain could come along …. And, "contained" fires can continue to burn and Smoke for a long time. It would be good to develop Plan B and Plan C. Three weeks ago the PCT closed 2 days before I started my last section. Having some alternatives in mind, along with maps, food, fuel, etc. will ease the stress.

hey greg, yeah i was wondering how contained worked in regards to smoke. i imagine a fire could be "contained" but continue to burn through fuel for a while, like you said.

It's burning some of the roughest and most remote terrain there is. You're not going to see them fighting it to total containment unless it is a direct threat to populated places. They are protecting structures (Hume Lake, the power generating property on the Kings, Grant Grove, etc) but there are miles of incredibly steep canyon walls burning. They are not risking lives to totally put it out if it's not a risk to people. All the containment mentioned is blocking the fire from structures or tourist attractions. The HST will be the first place people transfer their permits to, followed by Mineral King… once the quotas are full, it's walk ins only. There will be lines.

hey lori thanks, very interesting. we already have a permit and assumed a popular trail like the HST would be full permit-wise with or without a fire pushing folks away from other areas of the park. but really helpful insight thank you!

The OP was about a loop starting at roads end. I'm pretty sure tuat won't be opening soon. I know there is smoke and haze all the way to independence and bishop. Another fire north is adding to the haze on the nortern part of the jmt. There was and may still be a fire in the golden trout wilderness not sure how that will or is effecting mineral king. The rough fire shows no signs of slowing down if winds shift smoke could effect the hst. I was on the hst from 11-13 no smoke then but the fire was much smaller. I was about to finish the big seki loop counter clockwise when i had to bail at bishop instead of going south at the middle fork. I tried to get back to roads end at kearsarge pass the day they shut down the 180 for exiting vehicles. Of course if you plan something further south you may not be effected, in the 8-9 days i was out there it did not rain a drop. Sure I'm not happy that I have rental car stuck there and that has soured my experience but knowing what I know know I would plan to hike elsewhere (not in the sierra).

Having a tough time editing my post. It seems the noerthern fire I mentioned are small fires in yosemite. When I was hiking people heading south on the jmt were talking about a large fire up there. That seems to be some misinformation . . .

Pretty sure you mean a small maintenance burn the park is monitoring along Tioga Pass Road. It's not much to write home about. Outside the park, meanwhile, there is the Walker fire, which is 100% contained and on its way to done. I have been watching the smoke over time here: http://tinyurl.com/pkgnd5b The central Sierra is pretty impacted. I will be on Tioga Pass this weekend, hopefully the winds will favor me….

My permit for the loop starting on 9/4 was canceled. I'm hoping to visit Rae Lakes from Kearsarge pass but not sure how bad the smoke will be in a week or two in that area.

Martha I'm no fire expert, and I'm not on the ground in the Sierra, but looking at the perimeter of the fire and the regions that are still actively growing — it's hard to imagine that you'll be able to hike there in the first half of September. As others have mentioned, this is very rugged terrain, and it's unlikely that there will be substantial rain until late October. Download the BigSEKI loop route in kml format from the CalTopo map. Load that into google earth, along with the perimeter kml file that's available from inciweb – http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4456/ Change your perspective so that you're looking east obliquely. You can then imagine where the smoke from the fire is going. And, if the fire jumps the current perimeter and continues up the Middle Fork Kings River past Tehipite Dome and on up to Simpson Meadow, you must not hike the loop, even if the road is reopened. The loop goes through Simpson Meadow, and that would not be a safe place to be if that canyon is burning. Another nice resource is NASA's Worldview, where you can look at daily satellite images to see the smoke. https://earthdata.nasa.gov/labs/worldview/ And of course Wundermap makes it easy to see the fire situation by turning on the Active Fires layer. http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/

Thank you Amy and all for your remarks and advice. I just received from the Parks Services/Department of Interior that my permit at Roads End for Sept 13 is cancelled. Given all the informed info on this forum I had decided to cancel. Disappointing. Might try the Pemi Wilderness this Fall and shoot for the Seki Loop next season—maybe in the Spring or again for Sept (but do not want to get hung up in these fire disasters again). Thanks all for the informed comments!

Picture > 1000 words. http://www.buckrock.org/webcams_weather.html One does not simply walk into Mordor.

I also had a trip planned out of Road's End on the 19th that is "canceled" (if the road re-opens before then I can proceed but really hard to say what's going to happen at that point). Is it smoky all the way into the Evolution Basin? I had a thought to try to work out some trip into there but just seems tough to figure out what will be feasible. But really I'm curious if anyone has some suggestions for a weeklong trip further north, maybe around Yosemite or so that might not be as impacted by the fires. I'm not really as familiar with ideas that could be done out of there

Sam, http://caltopo.com/m/1F61 I just completed this loop in 3 days (40-something miles total), but you could easily extend it by bagging some peaks or exploring some of the adjacent areas. A couple days had a bit of haze from the fire, but overall it was a very scenic and enjoyable trip. Very easy to get a permit for the Quartz Mountain trailhead because it lies just outside of Yosemite.

Thanks for the suggestion but the only drawback is that I was just in that area of Yosemite in July! Was hoping to explore more areas. Emigrant wilderness seems like a good place to look, any suggestions for trailheads to work out of? I already have a week blocked off so I'm hoping to figure out how to take up that entire week with backpacking, but I'm just not terribly familiar with some of these areas north of Yosemite edit: Maybe a more useful request, are there areas up there that I *shouldn't* miss and want to include in any itinerary? :)

My Roads End permit was also cancelled, and I was going to enter on the other side at Kearsarge but decided against it when i saw the smoke. Drove up to Yosemite and only had minor smoke only two days out of ten. No one can predict fires or the wind but you should be able to find a hike if you come to Cali. Order different Harrison maps now and download dif high rez sections for Gaia so you can be flexible when you arrive. The PCT section from Tuolumne / Glen Aulin trailhead to Sonora Pass is 75 miles and is about as awesome as it gets towards the end. Don't despair, the Sierra is a big place, you have lots of options, and in September you can get on any trailhead no problem.

Yah, I got a new plan out of the Crabtree trailhead in the Emigrant Wilderness, 7 days kind of paralleling the Yosemite border out to the PCT and back with some dips into Yosemite. Don't know that area very well but that's ok…more of a "should I camp here or somewhere else" kind of thing. Should be nice to see new areas :) Still bummed about most likely canceling my SEKI trip…was looking forward to a mix of exploring new areas (and some off trail stuff) along with revisiting some parts of the JMT I hiked on last year. What can you do though, right? Maybe they'll reopen 108 before then and I'll still go my permit starts on the 19th and that's still over 2 weeks away, but at least I have a backup plan that looks pretty good

Greg: "Of course a 3" rain could come along …." Y'all may be in luck! I'm 5 for 5 at bringing storms and/or sudden cold fronts every time I go out West in the last four years, and I'll be landing in Fresno about lunchtime. I imagine that's wishful thinking(but I AM bringing rain gear). As it stands, we've already ditched plan B. Will probably be playing it by ear and dodging smoke the next couple of weeks.

i was in the eastern Sierra last weekend. There was a significant level of smoky haze all up and down the eastern slope from Sonora Pass to Convict Canyon. According to the ranger in Lee Vining, this was from the Rough Fire. I.m not aware of other fires in the area (the Walker Fire is out and they have reportedly reopened that area). I could barely see the Sierra crest at Tioga Pass. Didn't smell smoke, though.